Thursday, September 16, 2010

NFL Week 2 Picks

Why would you ever bet on NFL games? To me the risk is so much greater than any possible reward. The way the NFL plays out every year, is to use a gambling term, "a crap shoot".

Still maybe that's why even if you don't gamble it's fun to try and predict what might happen in an uncertain landscape.

Week 2 picks

Colts over the Giants. It's not even close who is the better QB out of the Manning Brothers. Eli is never going to be an elite QB. But he can be a pretty good one at times and I have to think he wants a victory bad. He wants this one like Lindsay Lohan wants a shot of whiskey. I'm guessing NY will send everyone and the kitchen sink at Payton. Last week I thought maybe the Colts might get clipped by the Texans but I wasn't willing to go all in on it. This week they are at home and although I think the Colts have some issues to iron out I'm picking them by a field goal. Question though: Who does the better Manning face, Payton, Eli, or Archie? I'm going with Dad. Last time the two brothers played Archie looked like he needed to take a poop for 3 hours.

Pats over the Jets. Shouldn't be close. The Jets D probably is/will be good this year, but Brady is all the way back and he has his weapons. I think the Pats are going to the Super Bowl this year and I might need to stick my head in an oven when that happens.

Ravens over the Bengals. .....just because I'm giddy over the possibility of Owens and Ochodoofus arguing on the sidelines with each other, Palmer, or anyone for that matter.

Cowboys over the Bears. If the Cowboys lose this game at home and go 0-2 to start, we may as well call in the Apocalypse. Or at least that will be the sentiment in Dallas. I trust Romo over Cutler. However, both sort of scare their fanbases every time they let the pigskin fly.

Eagles over the Lions. I love to watch Michael Vick when he is elusive in the pocket, runs a lot, and is hitting his receivers. Trouble is, even if he plays much this year and were to get back to anything like his form before jail, he had major flaws as a passer in terms of accuracy and touch (which are still there) and I think that dooms him from ultimate success. If Kolb is accurate and can move the offense then I think this he is a no-brainer starter for this season. And even if he isn't great this year don't you need to give him a year to work out the kinks? You just jettisoned a pretty good QB in McNabb for this guy.

Falcons over the Cardinals. Matt Ryan has to be one of the most disappointing players to me last year. He didn't do anything to change that opinion in the first game. Isn't this guy supposed to be getting better instead of regressing? It's early though. Still a whole season to go and he can prove us doubters wrong. On the other side here, I think Derek Anderson may do better this year than he did for the Browns but the Cardinals almost lost the game against the Rams and probably should have lost it. Being a BYU fan, I'm actually rooting for backup QB and ex-BYU Cougar Max Hall to get a shot.

Packers over the Bills. I think this should be a blowout. The Bill's C.J. Spiller will hopefully see a few open holes this week. There weren't any last week that's for sure.

Titans over the Steelers. I'm really starting to dislike Vince Young and Chris Johnson. Johnson especially bugs me. He's fast and a great runner but I find myself rooting against him. Not sure why other than I'm not a big fan of extreme arrogance. I think right now he's on top and he knows it and he's going to make sure everyone else knows it. He deserves a lot of accolades but he's too over the top for my tastes in terms of what he says and how he carries himself. As for Young, the dude says he wanted Bush's tainted Heisman. That's messed up. He's long believed he should have won it. Watch the replay of the announcement at the original presentation. He's visibly upset that he didn't get it. Not that that is a big deal necessarily but I just get a sense of entitlement this guy has had since he got into the league and once again I'm bugged by it. I'm so cliche with my desire for humility from insanely gifted athletes who are worshipped by the masses. I realize the the hypocrisy: we tell these guys how great they are and then we want them to go into "aw shucks" mode. It's not totally unrealistic though. Look at Drew Brees, Kevin Durrant, RafealNadal, etc. It can be done.

Chiefs over the Browns. Memo to Coach Haley of the Chiefs: Get the ball to Jamaal Charles. And often.

Panthers over the Bucs. Don't care about the game. Don't care about either team. I am slightly interested to see which ex-backup QB plays better though.

Vikings over the Dolphins. If the Vikes are smart, they'll dial down the passing game and see if they can win a game on the ground. Favre needs the rest.

Rams over the Raiders. I'm hopeful here. I really like Bradford and I wish he had receivers like Tory Holt and Isaac Bruce (in their primes) to throw to. I don't know what the identity of this team is. Jackson is a great back and they should probably ride him a lot but at the same time that arm of Bradford sure looks fun to test out.

Texans over the Redskins. I may hate myself tonight for drinking the kool-aid (...wait shouldn't it be gatorade in the NFL?) on these guys but Houston looked pretty good against Indy.

Broncos over the Seahawks. This seems like a toss-up but the Broncos are at home. Is that the only reason I picked them? Yep. At least for this week.

Chargers over the Jags. Slow starting San Diego needs to step it up this week and I have hardly ever seen David Garrard have 2 good games in a row.

Saints over the 49ers. Who dat? You guys are the Saints. Why are you always asking that? It's getting annoying.